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reetings from Australia.
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Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after have a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty ...
Your loving friend,
E.W. [Edward Winslow]
Plymouth in New England this 11th of December, 1621
Mourt's Relation, pub. 1622; EW Winslow writes of what many believe to be the first American Thanksgiving, which apparently occurred prior to December 11,
1621 (use our Search to see other dates for the first Thanksgiving, as the origins are disputed)
Source
A late-Medieval
representation of a comet and its portents
And wars have that respect for his repose
As winds for halcyons when they breed at sea. English poetDryden, Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell, xxxvi
That the materially poor can ever be spiritual is out-and-out absurd. Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), Indian cult leader, born on
December 11, 1931
Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life is already here, arrived. You are standing on the goal. Don't ask about the path. Osho
Knowledge is not information, it's transformation. Osho
A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid the errors, that will do. Osho
Only people who carry the opinions of others need the support of others. Osho
The mind can be used and can be put aside. It is an instrument, a very beautiful instrument; no need to be so obsessed with it. Osho
You can't go on eating Italian food forever. Once in a while you want to try a Chinese
restaurant. Marriage is a lifelong bondage. Osho
He is at once the
truly clever person and the stupid person's idea of the clever person. Elizabeth Bowen,
writing in the Spectator, commenting on English author Aldous
Huxley (Island; Brave New World), on December 11, 1936
Septimontium
celebrates the
incorporation of the seventh hill, the Colline, as part of the city of
Rome, and according to Varro,
it is also the name of the city before it was called Rome. Chariot races were held this day and the rex sacrorum(sacred
king) would do a round of the graves of the argei
(heroes that according to the legend took possession of some hills of future Rome from the Siculi and Liguri;
see also May 9
and 14) on some hills,
and offer sacrifice to the gods of an animal untamed by the yoke.
Celebrations for Septimontium (literally
'of the seven hills'), on December 11, were in the past considered
related to the foundation
of Rome. However, as April
21 is the only information for foundation upon which all the
legends agree, it has been recently argued that Septimontium was likely to
have actually celebrated the first federations among Roman hills: a
similar federation was, in fact, celebrated by Latins at Cave (a village
southeast of Rome) or at Monte Cavo (in Castelli).Smith
suggests that this celebration took place later in this month; Platner
seems to accord with the December 11 date often given, but writes "the whole subject of the Septimontium is complicated and quite obscure".
"There are different versions, but it seems probable that the festival was celebrated on the three rises of the Palatine (Germalus or Cermalus, Palatium and Velia), on the three ones of the Exquilinus (Fagutal, Oppius, cispius) and on the Caelius.
"The Septimontium was originally a festival of the people who lived in those places, and this should prove that it dated back to an intermediate period, between the epoch in which only the Palatine was inhabitated
[sic], and later times in which people started to occupy other hills. King Servius Tullius, who made a new constitution for the city, extended the participation to the Septimontium to the Sabine inhabitants of the Quirinalis, but the feast remained a memory of the
'old' palatinal Rome, as distinguished from its Sabine part.
"In imperial times the original meaning of the festival was lost and it became a celebration of the whole city. Then, (G. Vaccai
– Le Feste di Roma Antica) somebody at the time of the emperors, when the city had grown bigger, started to wonder which were the seven hills, therefore they were identified with the seven hills that we know today."
Source
This
festival honours the night of December 11, 1602, when the citizens
routed the Savoyards,
who were scaling the walls of Geneva.Shops sell
chocolate bonbons representing the soup pots the women used on that
night to throw hot water on the invaders. Tonight they will be
enjoying masquerades and parties. Presumably the people of Savoy will
not.
The term escalade means
'scaling' and refers to the Savoyards' use of ladders to
storm the city's walls. A woman of Geneva named Mère Royaume (Mother
Royaume), a mother of 14, was the first to notice the attack and
from the heights poured a hot cauldron of soup on the head of a
Savoy mercenary.
The attack was successfully repelled, over
200 of the enemy being slain, while only 17 Genevese perished.
Filled with joy at their rescue from this attack, the citizens
crowded to their cathedral, where the theologian Theodore
Beza(1519 - 1605), leader of the theocracy, then
83 years of age, got them to sing the 124th Psalm which has ever
since been sung on the anniversary of this great delivery from
disaster.
The Escalade festival takes place
from Friday through Sunday on the weekend closest to December 11,
the day of the Savoyards' ill-fated invasion. Near the cathedral of
St Pierre is the arsenal which now houses the historical museum, in
which are preserved many relics of the Escalade, including the
famous ladders.
The original event actually took place after midnight, in the early
morning of
December 12, but commemorations on Fête de l'Escalade are
usually held on December 11 or the closest weekend.
From
Wikipedia:
Celebrations include a large marmite (cauldron) made of
chocolate filled with marzipan vegetables and candies wrapped in the
Geneva colours of red and gold. It's customary for the eldest and
youngest in the room to smash the marmite, while reciting, "Ainsi
périssent les ennemis de la République!" ("Thus perish the
enemies of the Republic"). Other traditions include
mulled wine,
a large serving of soup, and children in Halloween-like costumes
singing Escalade songs for money. It is also common for children to
prepare vegetable soup in school, which is served to parents and
families that night. There is also a parade on Sunday evening. The
names of the eighteen who died – Jacques Billon finally died of his
wounds a year later – are called out, one after another. Since 1978
there has been another element to the celebration of the Escalade,
with a road running event being held the weekend preceding the night
of the 11th. The run traditionally starts in the Parc
des Bastions and goes through the Old City of Geneva, before
finishing near the start again. It is one of the most significant
annual events in Geneva, and is one of the most prestigious sporting
events in Switzerland.
"In the depths of dark mid-winter, visitors can
rest assured that warmth is not neglected: a bonfire is erected
on the Cour Saint-Pierre outside the cathedral, and the famous
soup of Mere Royaume (famous for stalling invaders by being
dropped over them), along with mulled wine, is available to all
visitors. In true Swiss style, the soup pot, or 'Marmite' [sic],
is recreated at home out of chocolate and stuffed with marzipan
vegetables before being ritually smashed."Source
L'Escalade at YouTube
Know of a better Escalade video on
YouTube? Drop me a line.
December Moon Festival, Inuit "N. American: December Moon Festival -
Innuit [sic] tribes of the far north hold a five-day purification rite,
followed by a ceremony in honor of the souls of the animals they have
hunted over the past year." Source
Jashan-e Sadeh,
Zoroastrian religion An ancient
Iranian tradition celebrated 50 days
before
nowrouz, this is a mid-winter
festival that was celebrated with grandeur and magnificence in
ancient Iran.
"... also known as the Feast of Fire, this celebration is a
midwinter festival which involves the ceremonial lighting of a huge
bonfire." Source
Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or
dies mala), unlucky day in
Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord"
was the associated saying.)
Feast day of St Daniel the
Stylite (409 - 493) Daniel was the best-known of the
disciples of St Simon the Stylite. He lived atop two conjoined pillars for
33 years near Constantinople.
" …the Glastonbury Thorn or Holy Thorn is a
type of Hawthorn that flowers at Christmas and is believed by some to have
originated from the Middle East. It is said that Joseph of Arimathea
visited England nearly 2000 years ago and visited the Isle of Avalon,
Glastonbury. He carried a staff which he stuck into the ground and which
took root and grew into a tree. The original tree was cut down by
Cromwell's soldiers in the Civil War but trees across the country are said
to have been grown from cuttings, such as at Appleton, Cheshire. On the second Wednesday in December,
a piece of the thorn in St John's Church, Glastonbury is cut and sent to
the Queen."Source
Indiana
Day, Indiana, USA Indiana's constitutional convention
completed its work on
June 29,
1816. On December 11
that year, President
James Madison approved a congressional resolution admitting Indiana to the
Union. Jonathan Jennings became the State's first governor,
William
Hendricks its first congressman and
James Noble and
Waller Taylor its
first senators.
Born in Breslau,
Germany, on this day in 1882, Max
Born went on to win the Nobel Prize in physics, jointly with
Walter Bothe, in 1954.
His great
contribution to science was in the field of quantum mechanics,
furthering our understanding of the behaviour of subatomic
particles. He also had some brilliant students, including Enrico
Fermi and Werner Heisenberg – both of whom became Nobel Laureates
before their teacher – and J Robert Oppenheimer, the
'father of
the A-Bomb'.
Born was the first
to use the term 'quantum mechanics', in 1924. As a Jew, he was
persecuted by the Nazis and forced out of his professorship at the
University of Gottingen, Germany, in 1933. He fled to the UK and
returned to his native country after the war.
On July 15, 1955, Max Born signed, along with 15 other Nobel laureates, a resolution
condemning the development of nuclear weapons. He died in Gottingen,
Germany.
1906Birago Diop,
Senegalese poet, veterinarian and diplomat and recorder of traditional folktales and legends of
the Wolof people. He was born at Ouakam,
French West Africa (now
Senegal) and was active in the Negritude
movement. Books include Tales of Amadou Koumba (1947) and Tales and Commentaries (1963).
1931
Osho® (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; d. January 19,
1990), controversial Indian guru, many of whose
followers believe he was poisoned by US government agents while
imprisoned. His movement was, for a time, commandeered by his personal
secretary, Ma Anand Sheela,
from whom he disassociated himself, amid
claims that she had been involved in massive fraud against
Rajneesh's organization, as well as a bioterrorism
conspiracy.
Your family and friends will get a
kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!!
You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your
own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)
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1282Cilmeri, near
Builth Wells, south
Wales: Death of
Llewellyn the Last
(Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Gruffudd; Llywelyn III of Gwynedd; Llywelyn II of
Wales; b. c. 1228) , the last
native Prince of Wales. In an ambush, an Englishman named Alan Francton ran him
through with a staff. Francton decapitated the prince and the head was placed on
a turret of the Tower of London. It is said that later, King
Edward I promised
the Welsh people to give them a prince who was without blemish on his honour,
Welsh-born and unable to speak English. He sent his queen Eleanor to
Caernarfon Castle to have her baby, thus fulfilling the three requirements.
1621 EW Winslow
wrote (in
Mourt's Relation, pub. 1622) of what many believe to be the first
American Thanksgiving, which apparently occurred prior to
this day (see quote above, and use our Search to see other dates for the first Thanksgiving, as the origins are disputed).
1640 English
Puritans introduced the 'Root and Branch' petition to the Long
Parliament in London. It demanded the English episcopacy, "with all its
dependencies, roots and branches, be abolished". (The imagery comes from
Malachi 4:1.)Source
1680While Rome was
excited by a "strange and wonderful" comet near the ecliptic against
the constellations of Libra and
Virgo, a
pullet in that city laid an egg which
bore inside it a perfect representation of the comet and the stars.
The club's meeting place and scene of its orgies was a cavern in
the
West Wycombe Caves, and also at
Medmenham Abbey, with plenty of alcohol and prostitutes
provided. According to
Horace
Walpole, the Hellfire Club members' "practice was rigorously
pagan:
Bacchus and
Venus
were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the
nymphs and the hogsheads that were laid in against the festivals of
this new church, sufficiently informed the neighbourhood of the
complexion of those hermits".
1844Nitrous oxidewas used as an
anaesthetic for the
first time in a dental procedure. Dr Horace Wells became the first person to
have a tooth extracted after receiving an anaesthetic for the dental procedure.
1848Louis Napoleon
(Napoleon III of France) was elected president of the French Republic.
1853 Britain
annexed Nagpur,
third-largest city in the western Indian state of
Maharashtra.
1854 "In the Report of the British Association,
1855-37, it is said that, at Poorhundur, India, Dec. 11, 1854, flat pieces of
ice, many of them weighing several pounds – each, I suppose – had fallen from
the sky. They are described as 'large ice-flakes.'"Source
1877English photographer and perhaps 'Father of Motion Pictures' Eadweard Muybridge
(1830 - 1904), proved that when a horse runs, every
foot is off the ground simultaneously at one point in every stride.
This he did by fixing up separate cameras that were set
off by trip wires as the horse passed. The projector he invented to show these
'films' (as we now know them), he called the Zoopraxiscope.
Unfortunately, Muybridge's life was not always as happy as today: On October 17, 1874, he murdered a Major Larkyns, the lover of his wife, Flora.
"Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904), to settle an
argument, was hired to prove that a horse had all four feet simultaneously
off the ground at one phase of a trot. He designed elaborate photographic
systems that combined batteries of from 12 to 24 cameras with fast shutter
mechanisms. The first successful sequential photographs of rapidly moving
objects were taken of horses and other animals. Muybridge devoted the rest
of his life to similar photographic studies of motion that are still useful
to artists and physiologists alike."Source
1921 The British
arrested the president of the Indian National Congress.
1927China: The
Soviet-style Canton Commune began. It was eradicated, after three days of
fighting, by the Russian Communist-supplied militia of the Kuo Min Tang.
1932 The No Force
Declaration of Britain, France, Germany and Italy against resorting to force for
settling differences; and, with the signing of Geneva Protocol on Germany's
equality of rights with other nations, Germany returned to the Disarmament
Conference.
The
program became a cause of US refusal to pay its UN dues (a continuing
condition), with Uncle Sam claiming that UNICEF programs were socialist and
anti-American.
1946 The United
Nations barred Spain from UN activities.
1950 Pacifist philosopher Bertrand Russell recommended that,
in order to avert wars, all warmongers spend at least two hours a day
in a boat in shark-infested swimming pools.
1951USA: Illinois
State mine inspector approved coal dust removal techniques at the New Orient
mine in West Frankfurt. Ten days later, largely because of coal dust
accumulations, the mine exploded, killing 119 workers.
1958 JM Beel of the
Catholic People's Party, formed a coalition in the Netherlands on the
resignation of William Drees, Labour.
1961 India: President Jawaharlal Nehru stated that the situation around Goa was critical.
1961
US President
John F Kennedy provided US military helicopters and crews to South Vietnam.
Kennedy ordered 425 helicopter crewmen be sent to provide training and support
for South Vietnamese forces. These were the first US military personnel to be
sent to Vietnam.
1962 The beginning
of a West German coalition of Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists and Free
Democrats.
1963 President Kwame Nkrumah
dismissed the Chief Justice of Ghana following acquittals in treason trials.
1963 After two days in captivity, Frank Sinatra,
Jr was released by kidnappers in Los Angeles after his father paid a
ransom of $US240,000. The kidnappers were later captured, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms.
1964Anti-Castro terrorists
attempted to assassinate pro-Castro terrorist Che Guevara during his speech at
the United Nations in New York City.
1964 UK: The
Machinery of Government bill was published, to permit an increased number of
ministers in the House of Commons.
1972 Buckingham
Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth
II had taken delivery of a video recorder to enable
her to watch her favourite TV shows at her leisure.
1972 American singer James Brown was arrested after a show in Knoxville, Tennessee and charged
with 'disorderly conduct'. Brown and two members of his entourage were
talking to fans about narcotics use when a white man told police the singer was
trying to incite a riot. However, after Brown threatened to sue the city for $1
million, the event was then termed a "misunderstanding".
1986 Australian
media personality Derryn Hinch lost his appeal against a contempt of court
conviction (following his public naming of a priest facing charges of having sex
with children). His sentence, however, was reduced.
1986
The South
Pacific Nuclear Free Zone treaty came into effect.
1991
Author Salman Rushdie called for his book, The
Satanic Verses, for which he had been put under sentence of death by the
Iranian regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, to be issued in paperback.
1994Boris Yeltsin ordered Russian troops into Chechnya. The world continues to tend to ignore
the atrocities carried out daily by the hated occupying Russian force that
outnumbers the liberty militia by approximately 200 to one.
Aw, shucks,
Daddy, why do these people hate us? Putin
1994 A small bomb exploded on Philippine
Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing
was a field test done by Ramzi Yousef to test
explosives that were to have been used in Project Bojinka, a
terrorist attack plan that was exposed after an apartment fire.
Investors will get the chance to buy Christmas, literally, in a radical plan for a public float by Macquarie Bank and UBS.
Although the deal is likely to draw the ire of community and religious groups, key institutional investors who have been sounded out on the pricing of the float believe the company can deliver strong earnings growth.
According to the draft prospectus, Christmas Ltd's revenue is principally forecast to come from licencing fees on Christmas-related merchandising.
"Christmas Ltd presents a unique investment opportunity in the enormous $350 billion market for Christmas products and services worldwide.
"The company has acquired patent protection over a range of Christmas trademarks from the Patent Office of IP Australia and anticipates rapid growth offshore once its applications for IP protection are processed in other jurisdictions such as the US and the UK."
The lead brokers to the issue, UBS and Macquarie, are raising $300 million (300 million shares at $1 each). After brokerage and issue costs of $45 million, $238 million will be paid to Macquarie Investment Fund VI in satisfaction of copyright, trademarks and other Christmas IP assets.
The balance, $17 million, is directed to working capital. This includes ensuring Christmas merchandisers comply with the licencing and branding requirements of Christmas Ltd.
For instance, depictions of Santa Claus, nativity scenes, Three Wise Men and other iconic representations will from next year be accompanied by the distinctive UBS "Three Keys" marque and Macquarie Bank's silver doughnut logo.
Christmas Ltd has also obtained copyright over music such as Jingle Bells, Silent Night and Away in a Manger. It will also receive royalties from the commercial production of any Christmas carols in Australia and New Zealand.
It appears that the seed capitalists who are vending the IP rights into Christmas Ltd have exploited a gaping loophole in the intellectual property laws. Until now, commercial interests and the legal fraternity had regarded Christmas and its related icons as generic and therefore unable to be protected under patent.
The patents are precise: "The licensor defines Santa Claus as any representation of a jolly, elderly male (generally clothed in red and white apparel) with a large white beard or substantial facial hair ... (with) a sled, sleigh or any manually conveyed vehicle transported by two or more reindeer".
Money lender temple recall
Christmas Ltd is also in negotiations to register IP rights over a number rituals and stories, both pagan and Christian, with a view to generating licencing income from their reproduction.
The Ten Commandments, for example, has been revised as the UBS-Macquarie Nine Commandments:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before money.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, except that it form a silver oval logo or three interlocking keys.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of thy master, the Bank, or the lord, its client, and his accounts, in vain – save when he defecteth with his chattels to another bank, and only then, off-the-record to a faithful and cherished newspaper.
4. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work. But the seventh is the sabbath and thou shalt only labour in the most sacred occasion of closing a big deal.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother, and other members of thy tribe whose inheritances are nigh, with a Macquarie Cash Management Account and UBS Margin Lending Facility.
6. Thou shalt not kill (the aftermarket in an IPO in which the Bank is a lead manager, global co-ordinator, co-lead manager or is beholden in any other role of distributor or agent).
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery (with a servant of the Bank from whom a sexual harassment case might arise and bring shame and capital penalty against thee and thy master).
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, in writing, save that thee firstly consult thy in-house counsel and thy public relations pharisees.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, nor any asset in his possession without taking first a debenture charge over thy neighbour's mortgage, giving thereof a first claim to thee when thy administrator is
anointed to wind-up thy neighbour's chattels.
reetings from Australia.
How it works
Septimontium, the Feast of the
Seven
Hills of Rome
Scaling
day (
![Christmas [ Dec 25 ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_edec_c_1_11.jpg)
![Seasons Greetings [ Dec - Jan ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_ejan_seasonsgreetings_1_13.jpg)
![Winter [ Dec - Jan ]](http://img.123greetings.com/homeimages/side_winter_1.gif)
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1877
